GARY MILLS has challenged his Gateshead players to make an immediate recovery from the potentially deflating seven-goal drubbing at the hands of a Premier League club in the FA Cup.

After a promising start from the Heed, West Bromwich Albion made light work of Saturday’s third round tie at The Hawthorns and made sure Mills’ counterpart Tony Pulis got his reign off on a winning note.

Gateshead had caused the Baggies problems initially and Pulis, after his first match in charge, was quick to admit the Tyneside club had made it difficult for them.

But after Saido Berahino opened the scoring three minutes before the break, Victor Anichebe added a second on the stroke of half-time. That opened the floodgates and West Brom scored five further goals without reply.

Mills, whose side have dropped out of a top five place in the Conference, said: "I thought we were excellent for 40 minutes. Then conceding two before half-time killed us. We had two or three good chances and we were the better side. The worst I felt we would be was 0-0 at half-time and we go in 2-0 down.

"We'll move on, we knew we weren't going to win the competition but we wanted to give a good account of ourselves.

"We have been knocked out of the FA Cup and have to get back up the league. We are close to the play-offs and have a big game against Woking on Wednesday and we want to show what we're about."

Heed’s former Sunderland winger John Oster could have put the visitors ahead before the opener and that proved costly.

And Pulis hailed Berahino for the way the striker, who went on to grab four goals, inspired West Brom to an FA Cup romp.

The England Under-21 ace netted an 11 minute hat-trick either side of the interval. That took his tally to 13 for the season and Pulis is eager to get to know the hotshot after the third round win.

"The kid is a very talented lad, with great ability and obviously he scores and I am looking forward to working with him," he said.

"I haven't trained with him so I've got that to come but he looks a very talented boy.

"I hope he keeps reading the headlines if he scores four every week. Someone said he didn't celebrate but it was lovely to see all the lads go over when we scored a goal as that showed the unity we'll need."

Albion were outplayed for the first 40 minutes until Berahino and Anichebe struck. Pulis started the game in the stands but was forced on to the touchline after just 15 minutes.

Albion scored five goals in 13 minutes as ex-Middlesbrough winger Chris Brunt added to Berahino's hat-trick and Anichebe's strike.

Darlington-born James Morrison made it six before Berahino wrapped up the win in style with a cool finish in stoppage time.

West Brom: Myhill; Baird, McAuley, Dawson, Pocognoli; Sessegnon (Varela 67), Morrison, Brunt, Dorrans (Samaras 54); Anichebe (Yacob 54), Berahino. Subs (not used): Foster, Wisdom, Ideye, Mulumbu.

Gateshead: Bartlett; Baxter, Curtis, Clark, Jones; Pattison (Ramshaw 56), Turnbull, Gjokaj (Chandler 60), Rodman, Oster, Rankine (Wright 68). Subs (not used): Shaw, Guy, Allan, Wilson.